11 January 2007

The MapSpeller for ArcGIS extension is for all ArcGIS Desktop users who want to avoid the embarrassment, delays and costs of typos on their maps. Before printing, MapSpeller quickly checks for, and suggests corrections to, spelling errors in and around GIS maps using patent-pending processes. Simple to install and easy to use, MapSpeller is an ingenious and effective tool that will quickly pay for itself by saving users the cost of expensive reprints.

Currently Edgetech America, Inc.has filed for a U.S. patent for, and reserved international filling rights to, a GIS map spell checking and correction system.As we all make the odd spelling mistake. Don't we?Hope that more than just US English is Supported.Mapperz just needs a dyslexia corrector

4 Comments:

That is useful, but I'm not sure I would pay for something that has been a sample macro shipped with ArcGIS for years. As a matter of fact there is a 4-year old ArcScript to do that. http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=12384Or does it do more than just check text elements?

There are major differences between the complicated procedure provided by ESRI to use the MS Word spell checker and MapSpeller.

To start with, that procedure is not at all obvious to follow even for power users and it varies from MS Word version to version. ESRI doesn't provide any technical support on it. The MapSpeller extension is easy to install using a wizard (InstallShield).

MapSpeller is a specially smart spell checker. The concept of the conventional dictionary doesn't suit maps very well because a spelling for a word may be correct in one area of the world/map and not in another. Edgetech America has therefore applied for a patent for locationaries (TM), spatially-smart dictionaries that keep track of the minimum valid geographic extent of a spelling for a word.

There are other important differences such as the fact that it works in batch mode, lets you zoom on the potentially misspelled words, uses danger dictionaries (to avoid spelling "public" as "pubic", for ex), etc.

This is the first version of MapSpeller. The focus has been on making a product that is easy to install and use, and has the right 'geographic' intelligence to handle typos on maps. The plan is to start adding support for more types of textual objects and locationaries in future versions. There are other ways as well of integrating MapSpeller within ArcGIS. To my knowledge, ESRI has no such plan.

Beyond saving on installation, the $150/copy cost(or less in quantities) is a bargain and is easily paid back by saving on installation time and a couple of typos that MS Word would have not detected and that MapSpeller does, thanks to its map-centric approach.

Edgetech America, Inc. has released the third major version of its novel GIS spell-checker. With MapSpeller 3.0, ArcGIS users can now spell check and correct typographic errors in databases (including annotation and labeling fields), in addition to map and layout annotations, legends, grouped graphics and scale objects. MapSpeller 3.0 is fully integrated with ArcGIS and is an ArcGIS 9.3.1.SP1 extension.

MapSpeller is able to spell check conventionally and/or spatially. Its unique technology enables it to take the location of words in maps or feature classes into consideration when proofing and correcting typographic or text positioning errors (U.S. patent allowed).